Let’s hear it for the girly swots!

I think she's getting a bit carried away.

Well said MawB………..but still some would rather hunker down with their prejudices than actually try to understand what was going on. Still, by criticising Lady Hale, it deflects attention from the utter boorishness and dishonesty of the instigator of the phrase 'girly swots'.

She was saying there is nothing wrong with being a girl and nothing wrong with being a girl - can’t you see that?
Boris meant it as an insult and she turned it on its head by saying “be proud of being girls, be proud of being achievers. “
It’s a bit like Dina Asher-Smith saying “what’s wrong with running like a girl” ?

She could have found another way of referring to hard working schoolgirls in single sex schools.

Yep. Read all that Maw. She must have seen the banner. She could have asked for it to be removed. And she was definitely referring to Boris's "girly swots".

She should not have referred to her judgement at all.

Hear hear Maw - excellent post ???

I think Lady Hale completely misunderstood the use of this phrase and its context. It was an insult and these words were used to insult a man
No * M0nica* - she understood perfectly.

maw give it to them girl????????

“Mean” not “man”

For heaven’s sake!
Has anybody actually read the context?
1) Lady Hale was not responsible for the “banner” and had no prior knowledge of it.
2) she was speaking to a conference of State Girls’ Schools.
3) she certainly did not man “girly swot” to be used pejoratively - unlike Johnson who seems to think treating women as second class citizens (or “bits of torture”) as perfectly acceptable.
If I may quote for those who seem to have got the wrong end of the stick:
“Lady Hale said a few words before leaders of girls state schools and was glad to declare support for “girly swots” in that company,
Mr Johnson was revealed to have called his predecessor (David Cameron) a “girly swot” in an unredacted version of court documents relating to the prorogation. The handwritten note prompted condemnation of him for using sexist insults.
Wearing another animal-themed brooch, a diamanté dragonfly, Lady Hale, 74, spoke of her rise up the male-dominated legal profession to become the first woman appointed to the Law Commission in 1984 – and the first female president of the Supreme Court.
Arguing that single-sex schools allow girls the space to develop intellectual confidence and revel in being “swots”, she said her all-girls state-school education in Yorkshire meant she wasn’t interrupted by boys in class. “I found this in Cambridge – I was a girly swot and there were quite a few young men who were, similarly, “girly swots” … But sometimes supervisions were invaded by the other sort of male student, who wasn’t particularly interested in doing much … work, and who concentrated on trying to put the supervisor off with silly questions, and just generally not do a lot of work.”

As TM might have said “Remind you of anybody? “

Now what, please, do any of you object to in that
Encouraging girls to stand up to sexist intolerance?
Encouraging girls to take a pride in their intellectual and academic achievement?
Encouraging girls to be confident in what is still, sadly, frequently a sexist environment?
What is “unprofessional” for the first woman to reach her position in saying to girls and their teachers - “You can do this too, do not let others put you down for being a woman” ?
I am reading more sexism (or sheer lack of comprehension) in some replies which frankly surprise and disappoint me.
I thought better of you.

'I'm British. Britain voted brexit. Nuff said.'

you are a very intelligent woman- and you know full well the facts and circumstances that make that statement invalid.

I think it was unprofessional. As was the banner she gave the talk under.

She was obviously revelling in her judgement, and taking sides.

I agree with you Monica

Shame he isn't called out on being so sexist. How much longer can he keep being this way and get away with it?
I hope not too long.

I'm British. Britain voted brexit. Nuff said.

It was a compliment in fact. But there you go..

Comments from a non EU location are just as valid as those coming from a Country which has overwhelmingly voted for Remain btw. So, again ...

Boris used the phrase because he was jealous. David Cameron got a better degree than him.

What bothers me far more is that Boris used the word 'girly' as an insult. It is chauvinistic and could (and should) be declared to be sexist in nature. I think Lady Hale completely misunderstood the use of this phrase and its context. It was an insult and these words were used to insult a man.

How superior do you actually think you are jura? Unfortunately for you I'm not bothered by your brexit obsessed posts from a non EU country. Surely you've got more to occupy your time than trying and failing to patronise people who don't agree with you.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

I think she's well past it considering her speech last week.

It's a great pity that she's coming up to forced retirement in the new year on turning 75.

Am not impressed by Lady Hale for this actually, either for the girly swot phrase or standing in front of a presentation with the wording ‘Spider woman takes down Hulk’ etc.
It implies a personal grudge, when the judiciary have to be impersonal in their approach at all times.The more I think of it, the worse it is.

Yay for girly swots. My daughter's one and I am proud!!

And in context it was entirely appropriate.

Far too easy to come out with these cheap phrases. Leave that to Johnson
But Jane10 that was precisely what Lady Hale was doing in referencing Johnson’s cheap jibe at Cameron.
No intellectual slouch, she! .

Go Baroness Hale! Time to reclaim girly swot as something to be proud of as opposed to some pathetic, childish nonsense from our puerile PM.